Jason Bolden’s Red Carpet Reign

0:03Hello and welcome to Fashion People. I'm Lauren Sherman, writer of Pucks Fashion and Beauty Memo Line Cheat. And today with me on the show is superstar, super stylist Jason Bolden. We're talking the business and nuance of celebrity styling, what makes a good A-lister, why it pays off to be kind, and so much more. Before we get going, I wanted to remind you that if you like this podcast, you'll definitely love Puck where I send an email called Line Sheet. If you're a fashion person, you get that reference. It's an original look at what's really going on inside the fashion and beauty industries.

0:40Line Sheet is scoopy, analytical, and above all, fun. Along with me, a subscription to Puck gains you access to an unmatched roster of experts reporting on powerful people and companies in entertainment, media, sports, politics, finance, the art world, and much more. If you're interested, listeners of Fashion People get a discount. Just go to puck.news slash fashionpeople to join Puck or start a free trial. Happy Friday, everyone. Hope you are having a great week. I was in London for less than 24 hours to host a dinner with Amex at the Heart last night. It was so great. To host two dinners in two weeks in a city where you haven't lived in 20 years can be a bit nerve-wracking, I would say.

1:23But I appreciate that line sheet stars and readers alike. were willing to come out for me, for Amex, for Puck, for themselves to chat, have a good time. We talked industry. We talked a bunch of different stuff. Industry, the fashion industry, but also a little bit about industry, the show. Anyway, huge thanks to the team at Amex for making it happen, especially Amanda Christine Miller, who I have known since I was probably 22 or 23 three years old, and who was the first person to ever take me to Nobu? The whole thing was really amazing. In Line Sheet on Thursday, I get into Chanel's acquisition of Charvet, which comes off the back of the two brands collaborating on Matou Blasi's first ready-to-wear show.

2:13You should really subscribe to Line Sheet and read the whole thing. I got a lot of messages yesterday being like, I want your take. Pay for my take. This is just icing, people. The podcast is icing. The real stuff is an inline sheet. But I will just say, I think it was inevitable that Charvet would be acquired. The family who owns it, there's no one, they don't have a succession plan. And this ensures that they have a decent one. Chanel takes care of the companies that they acquire. It's very obvious and clear. And that's not going to change. You know, they have 19M, that collection of Metiers.

2:51And it's like preserving French culture. They're not going to mess it up. So they own a company that makes feathers. They're going to do everything in their power not to mess this up. And I don't think it's going to get crazy expensive and all that stuff. Look, the slippers are more expensive than they used to be, guys. So anyone who's going to come to me to complain on that level, I don't want to hear it. This is the best possible scenario. It's not going to be messed up for me. It's not going to be messed up for you or any of the other 40-somethings who buy shirts there. elsewhere news of a big departure in the communications department at caring one of a fan favorite is exiting on great terms but it's a little sad for all of us and there's plenty of other good tidbits some more neat team magazine stuff i know you guys are loving this it's super fun i'm excited for that announcement maybe that announcement will happen tonight and i'll miss being able to say anything because i'm recording this early but um anyway looking forward to seeing many of you at the couture shows next week.

3:51And let's get going with Jason. This was so fun to have him on, on the back of Josh O 'Connor's big disclosure day press tour. So this, I hope you enjoy it. Jason Bolden, welcome to fashion people. Yay. I've been waiting for this my whole entire life. I bet you have. It's funny. I usually don't get that enthusiastic, but we've just gotten a lot of good news. So we're feeling good this morning. What did you have for breakfast this morning? For breakfast this morning, I had coffee. I had a cappuccino with almond milk and a splash of honey. That's all I had. What kind of almond milk do you use? I have no clue.

4:36Whatever they're serving at my local place. Okay. Probably Calafia, which I'm very anti, they're never going to advertise on fashion people, but it's okay. I much prefer Malk or three trees. I'm in, well, I'm on the East coast. Yeah, no, it's Calafia is everywhere. Unfortunately. Oh, see, I'm like, so I now, now you're going to have me, it's a national chain. Okay. Now you're going to have me totally aware now. I don't have to ask and pivot. Well, you're at a holiday spa vacation home, correct? Yes, yes. I'm on the East Coast in Long Island. So they may have something a little bit more. My issue with Calafia is it just doesn't have to taste as bad as it does.

5:20And I get very frustrated when restaurants have it as their main thing. But, you know, this is just one of my... Sounds awful. Yeah, it's just one of my pet peeves. But I'm in New York for a couple of days to deal with something urgent. And I was happy to be back to the world of three trees because in Europe, there's really not. We just use like shelf stabilized stuff. But anyway, I'm so happy to be chatting with you. Are you done with the, what is this movie called? Disclosure? Disclosure Day. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Press tour. Press tour is done. The movie is out. And now I am in the middle of what am I doing right now?

6:12There was just, I just came off of the men's men's fashion week. And now I'm going into couture in the process of, you know, I have things happening for the ESPYs. It's just, you know, the talks of Venice and I, I, Laura, I don't know. It never, it literally never stops. And then I have private clients and then I have things like that. So I'm, I'm always kind of going. That was a question. I mean, I want to talk through your process, but do you ever have downtime? Because, because there are so many events and like, will you come to Paris for Couture or are you a well-oiled machine enough with your clients, especially your long-term clients that you don't need to be there every single time?

6:57Yes and no. Like, for example, I just had a conversation with Cynthia Rivo yesterday. She was on, she was literally sprinting while she's FaceTiming me on her treadmill. And she's like, Couture, you know, I really want you there. And I really want you there. And, you know, I know there's all these other things happening and me deciding to go last minute. So don't worry, I'll be fine. I'll have you on FaceTime. So I have that type of situation with people. but then there's also a lot of times like i go to those shows i just don't go to those shows just for you know to to have a fabulous picture to post on social i truly truly truly when you see me at a show i'm truly truly working or there with a client working in that way so um this particular uh couture i'm i'm still on the fence i have a couple of people going and i'm still on the fence if I'm going to attend because this one just might be for fun for them in the sense of us working for something.

8:01Understood. Okay. So we're going to get into all of it. And, and I wanted to have you on, I've wanted to have you on for a while, but I think there was the, the sort of news page was the disclosure day tour. And I talked to a lot of the VIC PRS, the, or, or the VIP PRS. So the people who deal on the brand side with the celebrities and we talk a lot about the stylist. We gossip about the stylist and the gossip about you. Tell me. You're the best one because you are you are kind. You come in and you do your own pools. You're really professional. You're like you're sort of there. It just they all love you.

8:44And they don't know that a lot of them are close to, but they also have battles within. And someday I'll write a big story about all of them. No, I won't. They're too good to me. But maybe without names. But they all like unanimously. And I think you have always had very hot, like big clients and very like A-list. But there's something this year that seems to have like sort of you. It feels like you are at the height of your power in some ways. So before we get into how you operate today and how you choose clients and all of that, let's talk about how you got into fashion. Like when you were growing up, was being a stylist a thing you wanted?

9:27Did you want to be a designer? Like, how did you end up moving to L.A. and styling celebrities? I mean, it's truly kind of this. It's not what I read. it's not what I've experienced in a way of like I read so many books and currently in my life in the past maybe 10 years I read these books about how everyone else kind of fell into it they lived on Park Avenue they worked at mine was completely like they vacationed with mine was definitely the complete opposite. I grew up in the Midwest. I'm a proper Midwest boy. And I always was into this idea of just beautiful things. And, you know, I give, I give all of it kind of to my grandmother, who was probably the chicest person that I still to this day has ever experienced.

10:21And she just allowed me to kind of follow her and just shop with her in so many ways. Right. And I would always see her in these in this way she always had the the most fantastic bob she always wore these beautiful khaki high-waisted trousers with like either a polo or a cap sleeve button down in it as she was like in her garden planting tulips like I've always kind of had that kind of experience with her and I would literally sometimes be with her on the weekends or she would like let me skip school and hang out with her and we would watch things on television or I would go to Saks Fifth Avenue with her and I would kind of experience fashion in that type of way.

11:06But did I ever know that this could be a career? Absolutely not. Again, I grew up in the Midwest. You're the doctor, a teacher, attorney, a cop. It's something that always felt that way. And then when I went to, when I moved to Chicago for college, I still had no clue. I thought you could only be a designer or you worked in luxury retail. I thought that was the only two things. I never wanted to be a designer. And then I start working in luxury retail and it gave me my first kind of personal experience with clothes clients, right? It was my first relationship with that. First is the touch, the feel, the identification of like, oh, this is this, this is how this feels.

11:53This is a fit. This is how this goes. And then people will walk into the door And then I would, not knowing that this is what I was doing, but I would, my instinct was kind of like, yeah, that Chloe look is great, but maybe you're more of an Oscar Della Renta girl. And I would kind of walk people in that way. And that was kind of my introduction, still had no clue. and then I met one of my closest friends at that time in Chicago and we started to collect vintage and I could tell you brands and she could tell you silhouettes. She loves silhouettes and I was merging the silhouettes and the brands at the same time and we would be having these vintage sales and selling it to friends throughout out of our loft and then it turned into something.

12:40I moved to New York by accident. We meet this kid in Soho and it was the store, which is now the Louis Vuitton store in Soho on green. And this kid gave us that space for a weekend for$1 ,500. And we just started selling vintage and we called it the garment room. And we made so much money more. Like that first weekend, we probably cleared like 50,$60 ,000 because this was kind of like that height of New York summer where everybody was, you know, traveling into New York. Like we used to call anybody who wasn't American. We used to be like the INTLs, the internationals, right? We're like, here goes the INTLs.

13:24And they would just all come in and they would shop like nuts. And they were buying everything. They were buying everything. And, you know, we got kind of coined the first pop-up store. We were kind of like, we were the first pop-up and it was called The Garment Room. And it just kind of, that created its own life. And then I made a decision. I met my husband and I was kind of like, I want to do something else. I'm kind of burnt out because we were working seven days a week and it was just two of us, seven days a week. And we were shopping and selling at the same time and doing design inspirations from people like Akris to Ralph Lauren.

14:02Like we were doing these big design inspiration suites with them. And then I met my husband. He was like, well, take a beat. Figure out what you want to do. And then the start was one of my best friends, Gabrielle Union, called me. She's like, I'm going to Art Basel. I need something to wear. And I was like, oh, I have this vintage Lamban. I have this Alaya. You should just do it. I'll bring it with me when I get to Miami. She tried it on. And we went to an Art Basel party. and she got picked up. The image got picked up. The image got picked up by Vogue. And it was kind of like Jason Bolden, like style curator or something like that.

14:40I was like, first of all, what is that? Second of all, huh? And it just kind of snowballed. And then I all of a sudden became a stylist. I didn't know anything about that. I mean, the most I knew was watching Rachel Zoe project. And how long ago was that? Oh, my gosh. I don't know. I mean, I guess it would be not even like 15 years. Maybe, maybe. Cause I've been with my husband for 15 years. So maybe like third, maybe like truly, truly in it, in it, maybe like 13, 13, something like something in that world, 13 to 15 years, you know, from the real start, you know? But I, I mean, I had like, throughout that part, I was like, I was playing with that.

15:25I never had any true ideas of anything. And then, you know, I just found myself in this thing. I kind of faked it till I made it. I had no idea. I didn't know how to send a request email. I mean, my whole entire, everything was on my American Express. So I was doing it that way. And then I found an assistant. When I moved to LA, I found an assistant. And she had been an assistant for a really big stylist at the time. I think she was like number two or three for a big stylist. And she literally came in and she was like, I'm going to send request emails. And I was like, what? What the? Like, huh?

16:01I'm like, girl, what? And that's how we kind of started. And then I would just personally walk into, these are like Star Wars days back in LA. Like I would walk into Star Wars and I would walk into like all these different things, you know? R.I.P. Star Wars. Oh, my God. Just with Nikki Bitter in London, who is now the CEO of Aries or co-founder of Aries. And she was one of the OG Starworks people and Justin Padgett and like, and in the U.S., Rahman, Kia, like there were just so many, they had so many different businesses. Remember that? Wild times. Yes. And then I would just pop into all those different places.

16:41And like, I don't think I had like, I don't think I had like splashy glitter, glitter clients that people like, you know, die for, but I died for those people that I worked with at that time. And I would go personally go into all those showrooms and like ask and like, kind of be a little controversial in the sense of like, well, why not? Yeah. Tell me why, you know? And also, I feel like Gabrielle Union being your good friend, but also her celebrity has morphed so much over the years and has, she's a bigger celebrity than she's ever been. And also is so beautiful and amazing and cool. And people really like her.

17:22So for that to be your first person, it's a unique, who else did you rep, did you work with in the early days? My early days I had, I had, and Gab was never a client. It was just like best friends kind of things. It's like, if you would call me and be like, Jason, do you know when I get a shoe? Or like, that was more our relationship in that space. So I had people very early on, I think I had like Brandy and Monica at one point. And then after that, it trickled into the first really big one, because that was the one that trickled from New York to LA, which was Taraji P. Henson. Oh, yeah. And was this during her big TV show?

18:05This was the TV show and Hidden Figures. Oh, yeah. So Hidden Figures, she took me to my first of everything. My first Golden Globes, my first SAG, my first Emmys, my first Oscars. Like, I got to do that for the first time with her. And that movie was so incredible. And then you had her and Cookie. You had, you know, Taraji, the movie star, and Taraji, this big, splashy TV star. So that was so monumental to actually have someone that had so many cameras and lights on her. So I do know that helped in so many ways, too, where a lot of people were like, we want to dress her, we want to dress her, we want to dress her.

18:47So I coined her as my true introduction because I got to do everything for the first time with her. yeah yeah that must have been truly amazing and people were so I think generally really excited to dress her at that time right oh yeah everybody was it was great I had I mean I think when I first when I when we first started you know there was there was definitely a hold a lot of like well you know or well she's edgy and well and da da da da da da da da because Taraji came into it like Like Taraji is more of a rock star when you think of her style point of view, which is kind of out of the the the the actress, you know, celebrity actress, red carpet fashion profile.

19:33So she was like she was as soon as I met her, I was like, well, you're a beat of your own drum. She's a shopper, too. So she's going to shop and then she'll come into a fitting. She's like, I just bought this. And, you know, so that was kind of the intro into that. And then, you know, we did this, she did this really iconic W cover with Edward NFL. It was insane. The white tank top, the jean, it was fabulous. And I'll never forget Edward NFL sat me on the sofa and he said, who do you want? I'll give you whoever you want to dress her. And at that time I was dying for this John Batista dress. and he calls Jamba literally as we're sitting there.

20:19He picks up the phone and he hands me the phone and he goes, Jason, what do you want? Tell me, whatever you want. And like, that was that. And she ended up wearing that dress to, it didn't work for the Oscars, but she ended up wearing that dress to Indie Spirits when it was like the perfect moment for that. So that was kind of like the real, real heavy, heavy start and creating those relationships with fashion PR and creative directors and just being really grateful and understanding that this is an art, this is your craft and hoping people see me the exact same way. And I think that's where a lot of those relationships have stood the test of time because I didn't just go in trying to take something from you.

21:06I was going in understanding the business.

21:17so I want to talk about how the business has changed over that 15 years but as you developed your practice let's call it um how many people do you work with on average at a time like is there a certain mix of people that you mentioned Cynthia you also work with Nicole Kidman very famously. For Disclosure Day, you worked with Josh O 'Connor, which was very exciting for everybody. I got lots of DMs about it. But you do men and women. You do A-lister. You do different kinds of A-listers. But it's really high-profile people, very, very intense stuff that you're working on. As it developed, how did you figure out, okay, this is, I'm sure it's not an exact number, but like, this is the amount of clients I can handle with the staff that I want to deal with.

22:16And like, how did you figure all that stuff out? I think it was initially I was doing everything by myself and I was, I was still so hands-on. I was throwing up to every fitting and I was doing every pull. Back then I was the exact same way that I am now. The person, the people that I work with have worked with me for like eight to 10 years. No one's, we, I'm very clear on like my team and giving some type of autonomy so they can actually grow and understand the business. But I also, I have always started out just strictly as a business. Fashion has always been second to third on the list when I'm building, you know, this firm or whatever you want to call it.

22:57But I just really wanted to come in as someone who was an underdog, right? So I still work in that same capacity as an underdog. I constantly have something to prove and it's more about proving things to myself. And that's how I move forward. That's how everybody moves forward in my office. From Nicole, Nicole gets the same treatment as a newcomer. It is exactly the same because how I want that newcomer to show up is the same way that Nick shows up. How Michael B. Jordan shows up is the same way how I want Tyreek Withers to show up. So everybody gets the same treatment across the board. And that's the one thing that I want to constantly feed and fuel the people that I work with.

23:53So on a daily basis, it's a lot of people. It's a lot, a lot of people. Like I'm on the base of my life is on the West Coast, but my whole entire, everything else is New York and Europe. So I'm probably up from like, I'm like up at four o 'clock sometimes. And also, you know, I have a family and a husband. So integrating all of that. But now I'm also very clear too. It's just like, I only want to work with people. And this is across the board from brands to clients. I only want to work with people who actually are nice people because it makes the work so much more fulfilling. And it's just like, my office is actually pretty funny because everybody kind of fights sometimes over like, no, I want to do that.

24:42I want to, you know what I mean? Where most of the time I hear stories where most people are like, oh, I got to do this. Oh, I got to go there. We're all kind of like, this is going to be great. This is going to be so much fun. Like you get to be with people who actually makes this feel like the dream, because this is a dream job. This is like, when you think of like, I can be doing other things, but I get to actually talk to these people and actually experience, you know, being with Josh and then being on tour and like having, um, Steven Spielberg walk past and be like, I like that jacket. And you're like, what is happening right now?

25:16This, this is fucking weird. So I'm at that space right now where I'm just like, I really want to work with people who actually love their job and also understand this is a job. This is also not who you are. So if you can treat me when all this is done and all this is turned off, you treat me the exact same way as when I'm servicing you. Those are the type of people that I want to be around all the fucking time. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's a level of, um, what is the word grace that a lot of people don't have in the world? Oh yeah. I mean, but Laura, I even think about there's like, there's point there's for me, I will also not work with a brand or a publicist or a thing.

25:59if it's just like, you know what? I just don't want that. Like, I don't have time for that. Like, and this is like a, this is a total universe and everything needs to need something else to function how it needs to function properly. And if you want to do all of that, that weird shit, then go, I don't want it. I literally want to show up, have a good time, do a good job. And every, all of us stand back and be like, that person looks fucking incredible. like that's the space that I want to live in but then you get people in this business where like I'm like I just sometimes have to just take it to the point I'm like you clearly don't have a life and I'm like that is too much for me like I'm trying I love this but I also have people at home that I that I need to pour into in a different type of way that actually love me and can't wait for me to get home so it's it's a balance for me in that space of saying yes and also saying no Yeah, I think it's a matter of some people need context.

27:01They create context because they have nothing to hold on to. And so they want to play games. And either you don't play the games and you live a sort of clearer life and you rise above, or you do play the games. And most people choose to play the games, but you clearly don't. in styling and working with the clients, how does that sort of play out? How do you build a client's red carpet and not even just red carpet, just like outward persona? How do you work with them to create? Because I never think of you as a person who I'm not like, oh, that's like a Jason Bolden person because every person you work with has their own style and their own personality and you could work with any brand.

27:58It's not like I could think of a brand that you that you wouldn't be able to work with because your aesthetic is so overwhelming. You are able to let the person shine. How do you develop that dialogue and language with them? I think the The biggest problem, the biggest problem as stylist to client is that people don't listen. Like I sit and listen to what everything people, I'm always like, it's like, you know, tell me everything. I literally, that's part of like my introduction. I'm like, okay, so tell me everything. What book are you reading? What are you doing? What you like, what you don't like, this, that.

28:38And, you know, and I literally listen and I consume and then I I play back that the stories and things that they said and I go look at like what has happened in the past for them, what's currently happening for them. and you just carve out that, you literally carve out that journey and that lane for that person. You know, I work with a bunch of people and like the point of views are very different, but it's also, you know, and this is an ongoing joke, but my mom does this, but it's an ongoing joke for her. She's like, but babe, they're all just expensive. So I'm like, she's like, they're all just expensive.

29:19And I'm like, I guess that is the common denominator. I was like, I can see that. But it's just like, you know, you have, you know, I think all of them are very, it's very different. It's very personal. And I think that's the magic with fashion and clothes. People always talk about individuality with clothes. And that's the thing. Like, I'm not in the business of building robots, right? I want people to actually just be and flourish in their own special bubble and universe. I never wanted to be the person. I think it's also something that my body of work is how I live my life. I am just not this person that has this one type of client.